The Right Approach to Managing Your Remote Team in the Philippines

Overseeing a remote team entails a unique set of challenges for any business owner or manager. Fortunately, Filipinos are some of the most digitally savvy professionals you can work with. And that’s on top of their English language proficiency and specialization in a number of fields.
 
As you navigate the intricacies of how to set up a business in the Philippines, it’s also timely to think about the best practices in managing remote teams. Your team (or would-be team) will perform even better and thank you for following these tips.

Find the right tools that work for your team

 
There’s a plethora of digital platforms these days that promise to help with team operations and communications. But teams don’t always get it right the first time around. That’s normal. And more importantly, some apps and softwares are better than others.
 
Real trouble starts when people persist with a tool that doesn’t really work for them. This can become a source of miscommunication and work slip-ups.
 
It’s important to acknowledge these failed experiments and try out other tools that might eventually be the right ones for your team. To narrow down your search, ask your team members what they need. Focus on these tech capabilities (e.g. video conferencing, real-time collaboration, project tracking) as you search for the next app to try.

Embrace flexibility

 
The best bosses and managers recognize that everyone has their own working style. Some are early birds while others are supercharged during the night.
 
In the world of remote work, there should be a degree of flexibility when working out schedules as long as everyone is meeting their targets. Of course, this doesn’t mean that team huddles, client interactions, and other high level meetings should take a backseat (more on this below).

Use video meetings wisely

 
A common move many managers make is to schedule an inordinate amount of meetings thinking that it’s the most productive use of their time. That can have disastrous results for the rest of the team, especially those who have a lot of tasks to do. Furthermore, too many video meetings can lead to Zoom fatigue.
 
You can make good use of your team’s virtual by doing the following:

• • Ask yourself if the meeting’s agenda can be discussed in an email or a group chat. If the answer is yes, don’t set a meeting.

• • Set a time cap and a clear agenda for each meeting. The intention is to have an awareness and respect for everyone’s time. Keep to the agenda as much as possible to make better use of the time.

• • Schedule weekly check-ins rather than daily team meetings. This way, team members can carve time and focus on meeting their deadlines before the scheduled weekly check-in.

• • In case of emergency meetings, only invite the relevant team members.

When used wisely, meetings can inspire your team to perform to the best of their abilities and improve working relationships.

Set clear expectations

 
Since a remote team won’t be seeing each other most of the time, it becomes crucial to set clear expectations right from the get-go. Naturally, this responsibility falls on management and team leaders.
 
By setting clear expectations, everyone reduces confusion or ambiguity around company goals and targets. And as a result, team members can focus their time on the tasks and projects that truly matter.
 
Furthermore, when people know exactly what to do, you empower your team to achieve meaningful outcomes rather than just surface-level results. In other words, you don’t want your remote team to be just churning out tasks like machines. Ideally, you also want them to understand your overall vision for the specific task or project and even for the company.

Simplify processes

 
When it comes to managing a remote team, you want operations to be simple and flexible. Complicated processes can create bottlenecks and increase team members’ reliance on each other. And that can produce other problems.
 
You should identify phases or areas in your team’s workflow and determine whether it is providing value. Eliminate redundant steps and try to improve processes that take too much time. Don’t forget to ask your team for feedback.

Get your remote team to work efficiently

 
Work with FilePino. We can handle your team’s administrative tasks and other essential background operations so you and your team can focus on delivering the best results for your clients.
 
If you’re looking to outsource your accounting, recruitment, or any other back-end process, FilePino is here to help. Call us at +63.917.892.2337 or fill out this short contact form to get started.